With David Remnick, Bob Weil and Ann Goldstein. Special guest, the writer’s son, Renzo Levi.
After 12 years of work, W.W. Norton presents Primo Levi’s Complete Works in English. Thus Levi becomes the first Italian writer whose oeuvre is available in English in its entirety.
Primo Levi (1919-1987), a chemist and humanist who survived Auschwitz, is known worldwide for If This Is a Man and The Periodic Table. His work has been translated in 38 languages and has become a point of reference in the reflection upon human nature and the process by which a society can turn into a murderous machine.
Levi’s definition of the “grey zone” has proven a powerful interpretative tool in philosophy and political science and his radically secular view of history continues to be both fertile and contentious.
In spite of three decades of expanding scholarship in English, many of Levi’s works, as well as the diversity of themes and literary registers, remain little known to the broader public.
When, over 12 years ago, W.W. Norton’s publisher Bob Weil and editor Ann Goldstein undertook this challenging endeavor for the Liveright imprint, they sought to widen the understanding of Levi’s literary legacy. “I believe he is Italy’s greatest postwar writer,” Weil asserted, emphasizing that “the subtlety of his writing, the insights, and the storytelling, mark him as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.”
Centro Primo Levi NY has been involved in this long journey by supporting Ann Goldstein in her exchange with the Centro Internazionale di Studi Primo Levi in Turin, the foremost research center on Levi’s work.
We welcome the publication and invite all of you to join the presentation at the 92Y and our exciting reading series held in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò and the Center for Fiction throughout May 2016. A roster of prominent readers including Joan Acocella, Paola Mieli, Carlo Ginzburg, Michael Rothberg, Esther Allen, Ann Goldstein, André Naffis-Sahely, Jonathan Galassi, Manuela Consonni, Uri Cohen and others will discuss themes such as Normality, Friendship, Grey Zone, Translation, Poetry, Judaism, Commerce and Love.
